These days everyone wants to see their social media numbers balloon as much as possible, without giving any thought to the quality. Let me be clear: more followers aren’t necessarily good. This is coming from a guy with 220,000+ Facebook fans.

Let me be clear: more followers aren’t necessarily good.

It’s not just about the number. In fact, larger numbers on Facebook can hurt you because organic views–the views that you get without paying–largely depend on a high percentage of your audience that is actively engaged with your brand. So you should actually aim for deeper and more engaged relationships.

In the past, people were able to artificially inflate their number of followers by buying them, or some other methods that are frowned upon now. Buying, or getting a lot of low-quality followers, can mean that your most loyal and active followers won’t see your stuff. The fact of the matter is, you want your followers to engage with your post in some way.

The reality is that people who aren’t yet interested in you or what you have to offer at this moment are close to impossible to access without paying for “reach,” ads, and other methods that will cost you money. Furthermore, their social feed moves too fast; the “reverse search” (or the filter bubble effect) filters out what they see and don’t see based on a complex data matrix of what and whom they like, as well as what the friends they follow do and also like.

All this simply means you need to change your target when you develop your social media content–whether it’s a Facebook post, an Instagram picture, a Pinterest image, and so on. Your goal is not to convince people of something they don’t know about. Instead your goal is to appeal to the people who already agree with you.

This is a small but influential difference.

Take a minute to think about what you like and don’t like, as well as what your audience likes and doesn’t like. That’s what you talk about. Think about it: When you share or interact with something on Facebook, that action is the equivalent of giving your own stamp of approval and tells people, “These are my opinions and beliefs.”

Be the microphone for your audience’s pre-existing notions and opinions of how the world should be, and they will share you with their friends and bring you more followers.

Expand your friend network

When you’re first starting out, the best thing to do is to expand your friend network on your personal page. After you’ve decided your ideal audience, you can figure out a few key figures that already serve your ideal audience. They don’t have to be super famous or influential; small to medium bloggers with a good audience will do just fine. For example, if your audience was fitness professionals, I’d be a good target.

The next part involves actual work: create a new account under a pseudonym and make it your actual personal account. Tell your close family and friends to connect with you there, if you’d like. Add those influential people as a friend to your personal account. In fact, you should add 20-40 people as friends a day. Go through the friend’s list of this person and add their friends that look like professional contacts.

Be unabashed about it.

This is exactly how I built up my initial network years back. It was nothing fancy. I simply pressed “Add as friend” on other bloggers’ personal accounts. Then I went through their friend’s list and pressed “Add as friend” for people who looked like a personal trainer or said they were a personal trainer on their profile. Now I’m here talking to you.